Betrayal
by MageNellofGalla
Summary: Anders questions his wife about Irnai. Written for Drama Discus for Decathlon at fiefgoldenlake . proboards . com.


Series: Knowing  
Title: Betrayal  
Rating: PG  
Event: Drama Discus  
Words: 1,042  
Summary: Anders questions his wife about Irnai.

"Vorinna," Anders said cautiously. "Even after all of this drama, why do you still refuse to take the test?"

Irnai heard this snippet of conversation and stopped to press her ear against the wooden door. She wondered strongly why her step-mother hadn't let the mages test for a blood connection.

"Again with that issue, are we?" his wife asked irritably. "I won't change my mind, so there's no use pressing me for answers."

_So that's what they're talking about,_ Irnai thought. _It _is_ rather odd, Vorinna not letting them test._

"But why _won't _you? I'd like a reason at the very least." The Seer heard the sound of pacing on hardwood floors.

Vorinna groaned. "Because I don't like the test."

The eavesdropping girl stifled a giggle caused by her reply; she knew that Vorinna's patience for ugly topics was very short.

Anders snorted. "You've never disliked other tests. You aced your embroidery test in the convent _and_ the dancing one, if my memory serves me right."

"Those were things I liked to do; I truly have strong animosity against this particular examination." It was uncanny. Her words were getting longer, just like when Irnai lied.

"Give me a reason, Vorinna!" the knight demanded, his tone rising significantly. He knew when his wife was lying. "Is it because you don't want to see that she isn't ours? Because you want to keep thinking that she'll be ours forever and ever? I know how you've always craved for a daughter."

"That is not it!"

Irnai reeled back from the door. The woman's voice had risen correspondingly, with a touch more anger.

"Then what is it!" The pounding of fists on a table. The jingle of jewelry falling to the ground.

The door creaked open slightly, just enough so that Irnai could see inside. "This is either a blessing or a curse," she muttered at the door. But she looked in nonetheless.

Anders was standing with his hands on a table, rings and necklaces on the floor by his feet. He was dressed in only a shirt and breeches. Vorinna was a color to match her red dress that wrinkled with the pressure of her painted nails. Brown curls fell in flaring dark green eyes. Her thin lips were pursed into an angry line in order to keep her from screaming.

"Why can't you just let it go?" came the reply through gritted white teeth.

"I need to know," he sighed, already tired at his effort to act angry. "I've had wanted— no, needed— to know this information since I first discovered that Irnai was my daughter two months back. I'ven't an idea why it keeps _aggravating_ me."

Long moments passed. Irnai wondered if they were just going to leave it at that; let the topic slide. They'd done so before. Her patience paid off because Vorinna spoke up.

"Because I don't want to see that she's ours." The complicated vocabulary in her small, tired voice was gone. This was the truth.

Irnai let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding, but she went unheard in all the confusion.

Anders rubbed his face and ran his fingers through his hair. "You lost me."

"It was two years after Lachren was born." She flung herself on the bed and dug her head into the pillows, muffling her voice. "You'd just gone away for border patrol when I gave a birth to a premature daughter. Everyone knows that that's a bad omen."

Vorinna pulled her face from the wet pillow to blow her nose in a handkerchief, eyes bloodshot. "I didn't know if you'd approve. My mother certainly didn't, nor did my midwife. And what if she'd have something wrong in the head, I'd wondered. What if she tries for knighthood?"

Her husband looked up at her sharply. "What've you got against lady knights?"

"Anders, this was before Kel tried for knighthood, before you even came back to Mindelan. December, in fact. Early December."

He studied her for a moment and said, "Fine. Continue."

"So I gave her to Bethaline, my midwife and told her to give her to someone else. Someone she knew would take care of her." She sobbed, loudly. "I hoped that she'd have a good life, I prayed as hard as I could to all the gods. But she ended up in Scanra, Beth told me one day. She gave her to a blond fellow. It was fifteen years ago."

"The same age as Irnai," Anders remarked monotonously, still shocked from the news.

"I didn't want you to know that I'd given her—" Sobbing ended the sentence. Irnai backed away as Anders comforted Vorinna. She wanted to run to her, run to her mother and hold on tight and never let go. For the first time in her life, she was completely happy. It was like there was this gaping hole in her heart that was finally filled.

She was surprised when happy tears fell from her cheeks. Irnai sat down in the hall, pondering. A blond fellow. It seemed right: a man had taken care of her for four years of her life and then left her in Ratthausak. She almost squealed with delight. _My birthday's in December!_ _Very close to midwinter! _

It had been such a long wait for her: being raised for years by a man she didn't know, giving hope to the people of Ratthausak as a child no more than eight, traveling with the Protector of the Small. But she finally knew who her family was.

When her legs permitted her to stand, Anders came out of the room.

"Irnai, what are you doing here?" he asked soothingly, bending on one knee automatically. His hazel eyes looked up at her worriedly; he had obviously noticed her red eyes.

"I suppose that it's true." The voice that came out was raspy. "She's my mother?"

He smiled slightly and smoothed her hair. "I think so— I hope so. That means you can stay here as long as you like without any problems."

The girl flashed all white teeth in a grin and she felt another wave of tears coming. "I'd really _love_ that."

"Then come," he said, standing. "I believe that a proper reunion should be held."


End file.
